The present invention relates generally to the field of fall protection equipment, and more particularly to safety harnesses for accident prevention.
Currently, workers in construction, electrical service, and other areas connect safety harnesses to mount points to prevent injury in case of a fall. These mount points are assumed safe, but may not take into account many factors that may cause them to be unsafe under certain conditions.
There are several types of mount points, also known as anchor points or anchorage. These include, but are not necessarily limited to: (i) fixed anchors that are mechanically or chemically affixed in a permanent fashion to a solid structure; (ii) temporary, transportable anchor devices such as clamps, straps, braces, and tripods; (iii) anchor devices employing rigid rails or flexible lines in any orientation, such as horizontal or vertical lifelines and rigid track/rail systems; and (iv) deadweight anchors which remain in a fixed location by virtue of their weight and mechanical friction. In addition, anchors may be secured to fixed structures, such as a building or tower, or they may be secured to mobile reference points, such as lifts, utility vehicles, or helicopters.
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is the wireless non-contact use of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields to transfer data. RFID readers automatically identify and track RFID tags attached to objects. The tags contain electronically stored information. Readers and tags may be passive or active, and have effective ranges of a few inches to hundreds of yards. RFID tags do not necessarily need to be within line of sight of the reader, and may be embedded in the tracked objects.